


love you like you're leaving

by Kitmistry



Series: Writers of Destiel's "The Day They First Met" Prompt-Week [5]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Criminals, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon-Typical Violence, Enemies to Lovers, M/M, Mafia Boss Castiel, Meet-Cute, Mention of non-graphic violence, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:47:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26439742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitmistry/pseuds/Kitmistry
Summary: While all the other kids in his school look at the counter on the inside of their wrists, daydreaming about the day the number of steps will reach zero and they’ll finally get to meet their soulmate, Castiel does the exact opposite. He spends as much time as he can not looking at it.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Series: Writers of Destiel's "The Day They First Met" Prompt-Week [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1923583
Comments: 42
Kudos: 233





	love you like you're leaving

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Anniversary Cas and Dean!

“Remember, Castiel,” his father says. “A soulmate is a weakness, and you can’t be weak. You have our family to take care of.”

“Yes, Father.” 

It’s the first and most important lesson Castiel learns. While all the other kids in his school look at the counter on the inside of their wrists, daydreaming about the day the number of steps will reach zero and they’ll finally get to meet their soulmate, Castiel does the exact opposite. He spends as much time as he can  _ not _ looking at it.

As a matter of fact, he actively ignores any thought that has to do with a soulmate or the counter. And, for the most part, it isn’t hard to keep to his resolution. After all, he has thousands of millions of steps left. Why should he worry? He has far more important things to think about. 

Years pass in a blur of training and climbing the ladder. His name, his father insists, doesn’t make him any better than their henchmen. If Castiel wants to be the boss one day, he has to earn it. He has to work his way up. 

Which is what Castiel does. 

He steals and kidnaps. He threatens and kills. He tortures and backstabs. He becomes the best. Better than his father. 

Cold.

Distant.

Alone.

So alone that when his father dies, he’s the only one standing close to the casket. Oh, sure, his men are there to honor their old boss and support their new one, but none of them shed a single tear. None of them offer comfort. 

That night, for the first time in his thirty-something years of life, Castiel looks at the counter. Takes a sharp breath.

While he wasn’t paying attention, the number has decreased drastically. To less than a million, as a matter of fact. That should be… Castiel does the math mentally, and something he thought long dead clenches inside him. That’s less than a year. 

Whiskey burning its way down his throat, he looks up at his father’s portrait, still hanging over the fireplace. 

_ Remember, Castiel. A soulmate is a weakness. _

The words echo around him, sounding exactly like when Castiel was five and holding his first knife. 

A soulmate is a weakness. A liability. Something that can be used against him. 

With his father dead, there will be people who will challenge him. Castiel has been preparing for this his whole life, and he won’t let something as unimportant as a soulmate get in the way. 

And, a smaller part of his brain reminds him,  _ you _ are a danger to your soulmate. Now more than ever. 

He downs his drink in one go and pours himself another. He shouldn’t be thinking like that. For all these years, it was always  _ a  _ soulmate, not  _ his _ . There’s no reason for this to change now. As a matter of fact, it’s crucial that  _ nothing _ changes right now. Castiel can compartmentalize. 

He can do this alone. 

He can do this.

* * *

“Oh, you’re still here,” Inias, his right-hand man, observes a few days later while he lets himself into Castiel’s apartment. 

Castiel doesn’t look up from the reports he’s reading. “Where else am I supposed to be?”

Inias checks his watch. “Usually, you go for a run around this time.”

“I don’t have the time for that anymore,” Castiel says, and his voice doesn’t crack. 

Inias blinks in his direction. “You know, if you want, I can move a few of your appointments and meetings around and you can—”

“That won’t be necessary, Inias, thank you.”

There’s a beat. A sigh. Then: “You’re the boss.”

Castiel releases a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “What’s my schedule for today?”

Inias moves to sit in the armchair across from Castiel, quickly going over everything he has written on his agenda. 

Castiel is barely paying attention. He pulls his sleeve down to cover up his counter and tries not to think about it. 

He fails spectacularly.

* * *

Somehow, and despite his best efforts, the counter keeps decreasing. At some point, Castiel is tempted to ask for all the meetings to be held at his apartment to avoid any unnecessary trips, but that is both ridiculous and dangerous, and it’s not the time for him to lose his cool.

Just like he expected, another faction is trying to gain control of his city. They start small, by torching a few restaurants here and there, killing a couple of Castiel’s henchmen, but then they are everywhere and they are ruthless. 

Soon, it’s hard to tell who’s in charge of the drug market around here anymore. Control is slipping through Castiel’s fingers like sand, and he can barely keep up. It’s bad news after bad news every day. He has to do something. He has to show those fools that the Krushnic family won't be messed with. He is the top dog, and anyone who challenges him will end up six feet under, along with everyone they love. 

Actually, that’s not a bad idea at all. 

A soulmate is not the only weakness a man can have, Castiel thinks, whiskey swirling in his glass. He considers the weakness that comes with loving your family as he watches two of his men remove his father’s portrait from his office. 

* * *

The Winchesters are a tight-knit unit, Castiel finds out from his informers. The father is the head of the family and the boss, while his two sons act as his captains. John Winchester’s soulmate died years ago. They are always surrounded by bodyguards, so getting them alone is out of the question.

Except.

Well, well, well.

Castiel grins down at the report Inias leaves on his desk along with his morning coffee. A picture is pinned to the upper left corner: a man not much younger than Castiel gets out of a black muscle car in the parking lot of a bar, obviously without his usual protection detail. Dean Winchester apparently is a little bit of a rebel. 

Now,  _ that _ Castiel can take advantage of, very easily. 

It takes a month of careful planning. Castiel is no fool. And though he’s bleeding money faster than the guy he shot through the stomach a couple of days ago, he’s in no rush to take on the Winchesters. What he’s about to do will have repercussions, and he needs to be ready for it. 

It’s going to be a bloody war. 

* * *

Castiel watches, amused, from the car as Dean Winchester limps away from Inias, who keeps him at gunpoint and forces him into a back alley. Good. There’ll be no one to help him there, and, more importantly, no witnesses.

Inias keeps his attention and gun on Dean’s retreating back. The rest of Castiel’s men prepare to pursue, one of them turning to Castiel with a questioning glance. 

Oh, what the hell. Castiel deserves some fun. 

The moment he steps out of the car, his men stand at attention. Dean’s ragged breaths echo back to them, along with his heavy footsteps. He won’t make it far. 

“Inias, with me,” Castiel orders. “The rest of you keep an eye on the car. I don’t expect we’ll need you.”

Dean is hurt, scared, and trapped. It’ll be a piece of cake. 

They catch up to him easily. He’s run into a wall he wouldn’t be able to jump even if Inias hadn’t injured his knee. As they walk closer to him, Dean drops his head against the wall for a second, then rolls his shoulders back and turns to face them.

Castiel almost feels sorry for him. It’s too easy. 

“Dean Winchester,” Castiel says, taking the last few steps that will bring him under the streetlamp and out of the shadows. He wants Dean to see him. He wants him to know who is going to end his entire family. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Excuse me if I can’t say the same thing about you,” Dean spits, stance wide and ready for a fight.

Castiel can’t hold back a grin. He takes one more step, raises his gun, and as he does so, his eyes fall on the counter on the inside of his wrist.

The wind gets punched out of his lungs. 

Time slows down, stretching taut over him, threatening to snap and fling him back at any moment. 

One final step, and the counter reaches zero.

Castiel stares at his wrist, then at Dean, back at his wrist, back at Dean.

This can’t be happening. 

“Cat got your tongue?” Dean asks. Every line of his body is tight with anticipation, his eyes sharp. 

His eyes are green.

“Oh come on, dude,” Dean says, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “Don’t leave a guy hanging.”

He’s rude. Cocky even. Most of all, he’s infuriating.

He’s Castiel’s soulmate. 

Castiel hangs on a second of indecision. His hand starts to shake, and Dean notices, zeroes in on it with those green, determined eyes. He surges forward.

Castiel hesitates.

Inias doesn’t. He pulls his gun out, even as Dean’s running for Castiel with a hand reaching into his pocket, for what is surely a knife or some other weapon.

Inias aims.

The gunshot cracks loud as thunder. Echoes up between the narrow walls of the brick houses on either side of the alley. 

Dean comes to a sudden stop, and Inias falls like his strings have been cut. 

Castiel can’t breathe. His gun is still raised, pointing where Inias stood just seconds ago. He exhales roughly.

Dean cocks his head to the side. He’s a few feet away from Castiel, still in a fighting stance.

“You should go,” Castiel says, the words rough and difficult to produce. 

Dean doesn’t move.

“Go,” Castiel says again, and when Dean doesn’t, “I said, go! Go before I change my mind.”

Something changes in Dean’s expression, but it’s too fast, too dark, too far away for Castiel to identify it. Carefully, he walks towards Castiel, then past him. There’s a fire escape mounted to the building to Dean’s right, and he jumps, catching the railing easily and pulling it down. As he climbs up, he spares one last glance at Castiel. Then he’s gone.

At least he’s smart enough not to walk straight for Castiel’s men. Castiel would have been disappointed if he wasn’t.

* * *

When he finally makes it back home, Castiel is cold and tired. His hands won’t stop shaking. Despite his best efforts, his eyes keep returning to that tiny zero on the inside of his wrist.

Has Dean noticed yet? Has he put two and two together?

The answer waits for him in his own bedroom.

Dean’s lying on his bed fully dressed down to his boots, his shirt stained from where he tried to clean his bloody nose on it. One hand is behind his head. The other points a gun right between Castiel’s eyebrows.

“You,” Castiel breathes.

“Me,” Dean agrees, mouth set in a hard line. He unfolds his hand from behind his head and turns it so Castiel can look at his wrist. He already knows what he's going to find there. “You and I need to have a talk.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Writers of Destiel's "the day they first met" prompt week. This is day five out of five! God this week went by so fast. I can only hope you enjoyed reading these short oneshots as much as I enjoyed writing them. Don't forget to check out the Writers of Destiel tumblr for more awesome stories by amazing authors!
> 
> Once again, I'm an idiot who couldn't find the source for the prompt that inspired this story, but if you know where it is, please please please let me know so I can add it to the credits <3
> 
> A huge thank you to [ FriendofCarlotta ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FriendofCarlotta/pseuds/FriendofCarlotta) and [ Feathers7501 ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feathers7501) and [ blissfullycamren02 ](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/blissfullycamren02) for being my betas.
> 
> To see what else I'm working on, you can subscribe to me as an author or follow me on [ tumblr! ](https://kitmistry.tumblr.com/)


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